Cheswick hunter nails triple trophy for big game

Nathan Sipes of Cheswick not only bagged three big-game animals during the 2020-21 hunting season, but he also nailed two of them on Sundays.

Sipes, 24, has been hunting since he was 11. Like many hunters, he never had such a sensational season.

He harvested an eight-point buck in Upper Burrell during archery season Nov. 15, the first of three days for hunting on a Sunday in Pennsylvania. Sipes took his first black bear the following Sunday in Forest County near Marienville. And he bagged a spring gobbler May 1 in Upper Burrell.

“It’s unique for sure,” said Seth Mesoras, a Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman for the southwest region. “To harvest all three animals in the same season is something to be proud of.”

Getting all three is known as a triple trophy, while a grand slam would be taking all three big-game animals with bagging a turkey in the fall and spring, Mesoras noted.

“It’s an interesting scenario that two of the animals were harvested on Sundays,” he said.

After years of debate, the state permitted hunting on three Sundays of the year. “The opportunity was presented this year and this person took advantage of the opportunity to hunt.”

Sipes, a steamfitter, works six days a week, sometimes more. The three Sundays of hunting gave him more time in the field that he would otherwise not have had, he said.

Sipes did not go after the triple trophy, although, once he got his first bear outside of Marienville, the pressure was on.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I never thought I’d get a bear or all three in the one year.”

He and his dad, Richard Sipes of Upper Burrell, along with family and friends have been hunting many years. It has been exceedingly rare for anyone in the group to even see a black bear during hunting season.

After Sipes bagged his bear in Marienville, he missed his grandfather, Richard Sipes Sr. of Marienville, who died two years ago.

“It’s something I would have liked to have shown him,” Sipes said.

When Sipes realized he had a turkey to take for the triple trophy, he knew what gun he wanted: a single shot, 20-gauge shotgun given to him by his grandfather.

In Upper Burrell, Sipes went hunting on the first day of gobbler season earlier this month.

“I kept telling myself in the morning, ‘It’s only the first day, you got a whole month,’ ” he said.

Sipes found his gobbler early in the morning, much to his surprise and with the help of his single-shot, 20-gauge. He scored his triple trophy, but more, importantly, Sipes said, “I got to take this turkey now in memory of my grandfather.”